By
David Mansour
Andrews
McMeel Publishers, $18.95, 544
pages
Question:
What do Alfred Bellows, Adam Bricker and Doogie Howser all have in common?
Answer:
They were all doctors on television sitcoms, in the 1960’s, 70’s and
80’s, respectively. Further still, they all get brief mentions in the
eclectic encyclopedia of pop culture, From Abba to Zoom by David
Mansour.
Mansour,
from Kansas City, Kansas, is an unlikely ‘expert.’ His first connection
with pop culture paraphernalia came about when one of his friends gave him a
Barbie doll as a gag-gift. The joke turned out to be on his friend because the
gift launched Mansour into gathering tidbits and treats relating to three
decades of popular culture. A hairdresser by training, Mansour began his
collection with suggestions and help from his customers and companions, often
scribbling the details on the smallest of scraps of paper or matchbooks.
As
the title of the book suggests, the entries range from the Swedish recording
group ABBA, who were popular in the mid-70’s, to ZOOM, a programme that
aired on PBS during the 1970’s, and which had a brief resurgence beginning
in 1999.
Many of the literally thousands of entries are fun to read and would make great answers to the Trivial Pursuit board game, which also gets mentioned: “introduced in 1981 by Canadians Scott Abbott and Chris Haney, and credited with re-launching the adult board game industry.” And although we are talking about pop culture, one of the critiques of this book has to be that the answers are just too shallow, even by pop culture standards. The topics deserve more than the one or two lines afforded here, and details such as the television networks or creators of the product would help to make the answers more complete.
Because the vast majority of the entries in this collection come from television programmes and characters, From Abba to Zoom proves to be a great lesson in how all-encompassing television has become in shaping our popular culture and educating our young people. It is also interesting to note that pop culture has become increasingly homogenized and is the same blend, no matter if in Kansas or Kokomo.
As for Bellows, Bricker and Howser: Alfred Bellows was the NASA shrink who thought Major Tony Nelson suffered from constant delusions on the 60’s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, while Adam Bricker was the doc on 70’s TV hit The Love Boat who was more interested in bedding the beautiful women passengers than in practicing medicine, and Doogie Howser was name of the late 80’s programme about the same named boy genius who whizzed through med school to become a 16 year old physician living a teen aged existence while solving medical mysteries in an adult world.
If you were able to identify the three of them, you have probably spent as much time in front of the TV as David Mansour.
Mike Gange teaches media studies and journalism courses at Fredericton High.